Milk Stanchion Training

Friday afternoon we got the milking stanchion moved into place in the cow shelter.  Not suprisingly the girls kept their distance from it, although within a few hours Matilda just had to go take a closer look.   Saturday morning I fed them apples next to it, and then left them a flake of hay on the platform.   This morning I placed their chopped apples on the platform too.

My first goal is to get them used to being around this strange new thing.   In another day or two I will try to coax Matilda onto it with food, but if that doesn’t work after a couple of days worth of trying then I will have to hook on the lead rope and be a bit more persuasive.  The reason for the focus on Matilda is that I hope to get her AI’d during her next heat which should fall right about Oct 1st.   And for that she has to either be trained for the stanchion or I have to rent a squeeze chute.   I don’t plan to breed Maggie until January so I have a little more time to convince her that standing in it is a good thing.

And speaking of breeding, I’m still trying to figure out the best course of action and what bull to ultimately use.  Costs are higher than I was originally quoted, so I’m having to do some careful planning.  Hopefully I will get an order placed tomorrow so that I will be guaranteed of having the straws here when the time comes.